Papa
by freiheit89
Summary: The stories one hears about Slenderman aren't exactly true. They cover the basics: He kills people and kidnaps children. But what isn't said is that the people he kills are abusers; the children their victims. He also doesn't keep the children. He drops them off at far away orphanages, giving them chances at better lives. What happens when he decides to keep one of those children?
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: So yeah... this is dark. First dark thing I've ever written, really. Here was some warnings: There's mentions of child abuse (kind of the centre of the story, since it's why Slendy does what he does in this story), graphic depictions of violence, mentions of molestation, and possibly a mention or two of rape in future chapters (not quite sure yet, haven't planned that far into the story). I think that's it... If I end up writing a chapter that has anything I didn't mention here, I'll make sure to warn you at the beginning of said chapter. I had this posted on a different account because I was scared to post it on this one, but I decided to post it here anyway. If you don't like dark, gory stuff, I'd suggest not reading it. **_

_**Also, the cover for this story is NOT MINE. I got it from deviant art. You can find the full picture here: htt p: / www. Deviantart art/ SLENDERMAN- 330450187**_

_**All credit goes to the artist. And all the credit for Slenderman goes to whoever thought of him first. I only own the plot. **_

_**Hope you enjoy my dark and twisted tale. (^_~)**_

_**~Rina**_

Blinds were shut, windows were locked, and TVs were turned up to their highest volumes. No-one wanted to hear the latest fight between the neighbours; they'd rather pretend it just wasn't happening, like they always did. To acknowledge the fight would be to admit that their gated community wasn't the perfect little suburbia that the commercials made them out to be. So, they just tuned them out. Even the children continued to simply play with their toys, keeping in mind the stories their parents told them about the crazy Parker family: the man drank too much, the woman put up with the man's bullshit, letting him beat her senseless.

"He's a kind man when he's sober," was Mrs. Parker's excuse when asked why she hadn't left him yet.

During every community meeting, the other women watched as Mrs. Parker dabbed more power on her face, effectively covering up any _blemishes _on her cheeks and eyes. She always smiled, never showing any traces of the pain within her. She always came to every event the community put on, tugging along her two-year-old daughter, who was (thankfully) always unharmed. So that's why the neighbours constantly shut out the yells from the Parker's house; they figured everything would be 'normal' the next day.

However, this night would be different, and it would change the lives of the people in the community forever. Because even though the fight sounded the same to the neighbours, it was, in reality, very different.

Mr. Parker had come home sometime after supper, his daily anger fuelled not just by alcohol, but also by a rumor that his wife had been sleeping with other men. He slammed the front door open, nearly busting it off it's hinges. Mrs. Parker was sitting on the couch, like her husband had told her to do while she waited for him to get home. She didn't jump, didn't turn to look at him- she hadn't sensed her husband's elevated anger yet and was following the orders she had been given, by him. But the husband mistook the wife's obedience for a silent admission of what he thought she had done. He growled and stalked over, slapping his wife across the face hard enough to knock her to the floor.

"You fucking whore!" He hauled her up by her hair, making her cry out slightly. "_Did you think I wouldn't find out?!_"

The wife's only response was a whimper, since she had been told long ago not to speak up against her husband. He yanked on her hair harder, throwing her back onto the couch. The man straddled her, wrapping his large hands around her neck and squeezing. She got one final breath in before her windpipe closed off. She clawed at his arms, panic bubbling up inside her. He'd given her quite the bad beatings in the course of their ten-year-marriage, but he'd never actually tried to kill her before. He let her struggle for a few more seconds before letting go. As soon as his hands were free, he used them to deliver quite a few hard punches to his wife's face. She struggled uselessly and cried out loudly, finally sensing that, this time, it was different.

Suddenly, Mr. Parker stopped, his fist pausing mid-punch. Mrs. Parker stopped struggling, too, quieting down and eyes going wide as she realized why her husband had stopped.

Their daughter was standing on the stairs, staring into the living room with wide eyes. Her father studied her for a second, then slowly turned back to his wife.

"I bet she's not even mine." He snarled.

"No, she is, she is! I swear!" Mrs. Parker said insistently, not wanting her little girl to be hurt.

"_Don't lie to me_!" Mr. Parker bellowed, giving the woman another slap across the face, making both her and their daughter whimper. He leaned down, putting his mouth close to his wife's ear. "My mother was a whore, too." He hissed, his wife trying to lean away from his stinking alcohol breath. "She had a bastard child with the bartender in town. Know what my father did when he found out?"

Mrs. Parker shook her head furiously, knowing what kind of a man her husband's father had been, therefore knowing where the little anecdote was going.

"He brought the kid out back..." Mr. Parker paused for dramatic effect, "_And shot it._"

As soon as he was done talking, Mr. Parker got up off his wife and headed for the basement. His 'man-cave' was down there. It was a room that every suburban man dreamt of: big screen TV, comfy leather reclining chairs, mini-bar filled with beer. And guns.

Oh, so many guns.

The husband took his time choosing his gun, giving the wife time to usher her daughter back upstairs and lock her in the daughter's bedroom. It was the only room with a lock, so Mrs. Parker told the young girl to pick a hiding place- _quickly, now- _as she locked and shut the door. Then, she stood at the top of the stairs, waiting. Her husband emerged form the basement a few seconds later, a Glock 22 in his hand. He immediately spotted the woman, storming up the stairs and pushing her down them. She tumbled down, hitting the bottom with barely a groan. She wanted to move, to protect her daughter, but she couldn't. It was too much agony to even lift her head, but she did just that and watched helplessly as Mr. Parker kicked down the door to their daughter's bedroom in one swift motion.

Mr. Parker scanned the room, not seeing the girl anywhere. He began upturning furniture, first the dresser, then the bed, then two out of the three toy boxes- he found her in the third. The girl tried to scramble out of the box and out around her father, but he was too fast. He brought the gun down on her head, splitting open the skin on her forehead, through her eyebrow, and on her cheek. She fell unconscious. He dragged her out of the room by her wrist, holding her up to his wife like a trophy.

"You're luckier than my mother was, _dear,_" He said with a grin, "You get to watch your daughter die."

"_NO DON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!" _Mrs. Parker screamed, finally standing up, only to fall right back down again.

He held the gun to the head of the unconscious little girl. The wife watched in fear as he slowly started to squeeze the trigger.

But, suddenly, Mrs. Parker's eyes weren't on her husband anymore, but on some point behind him. Her eyes widened even more, a different kind of fear filling them.

"Watch, you damned woman!" Mr. Parker barked, then froze when a shadow fell over him.

Slowly, he turned.

Behind him stood a creature in a crisp black suit with a white undershirt and a blood-red tie (Mr. Parker would have thought the outfit comical were he not so damn afraid) that was as tall as the eight-foot ceiling. It had long arms and many black tentacles growing out it's back and fanning out around it in all different directions. The scariest part, however, was it's face- or lack thereof. The head of the creature was blank and white, containing nothing but small indents indicating where it's eyes would be, if it had any, and hollow, high, cheekbones.

The creature simply stood there for two agonizing minutes, staring at Mr. Parker. It cocked it's head to the side, turning it's unseeing gaze on the little girl in the man's hand, then back on Mr. Parker. In the place where it's mouth would be, a small hole started to open up. Gradually, it became bigger and bigger until it had grown into a wide, open mouth full of sharp teeth. Then, the entity made a sound- a high-pitched scream that sounded strangely like static and made Mr. Parker cover his ears, dropping the young girl in the process. Quick as a flash, the creature moved. It used two of it's tenticles to catch the falling child and another four wrapped themselves around Mr. Parker's neck, hips, an arm, and a leg. The creature brought the girl to it's chest, gently cradling her in it's tentacles. She stirred, the motion of falling and suddenly being caught having woke her up. Her gaze went to the creature whose embrace she was in, but she was more curious than scared. The tentacles that held her were soft, warm, almost... _comforting_.

Ignoring the girl for the moment, the entity kept it's attention on the grown man that it held a lot less gently than the girl. The tentacles currently squeezing and twisting around Mr. Parker were not warm or comforting, but cold and slimy. Bit by agonizing bit, they tightened around the man's body, cutting off circulation and air flow. Mr. Parker started choking, his free hand clawing at the thing around his throat. After three tortuous minutes, the creature finally decided to put the cruel man out of his misery. The tentacles started to pull.

As his body was stretched to it's breaking point, Mr. Parker used the last of the air in his lungs to screech at the top of his lungs as his arms and legs were torn off. The limbs were thrown across the hallway, leaving a splatter and trail of blood and trail of blood as they hit and slid down the wall. Mr. Parker was crying now, begging for mercy and praying to a God that he didn't even believe in. The creature disregarded his pleas, finally killing the man by ripping his head from his shoulders.

The torso landed on the floor with a thump, but the head rolled, bouncing down the stairs to come to rest at Mrs. Parker's feet. Despite her pain, she scuttled away from it, uttering her first terrified sound since the entity had appeared.

"Mama!" The little girl grunted softly, reaching her arms out towards her mother. The creature teleported, materializing between the severed head and the woman. She didn't look at it's face, only at her daughter, who was still nestled against the being's suited chest. The child didn't seem the least bit fazed by her father's death or by the blood specks on her face, but looked genuinely concerned for her mother. Mrs. Parker took a few deep breaths.

"Are you going to take her?" The woman asked in a surprisingly even voice.

In response, the tentacles holding the girl were extended towards Mrs. Parker, offering her her daughter back. However, the woman shook her head. She was putting pieces of a puzzle together. There had been children going missing all around the community, and even outside of it; all over the world. Their parents, always suspected of child abuse, were brutally murdered, and the children always reappeared somewhere far away from their homes, usually at an orphanage. Mrs. Parker realized that it was the creature that stood before her doing these killings and abductions. She could guess that she was being spared, only because the being thought she had never touched her daughter. Which she hadn't, but she had done something much worse.

"No." The woman shook her head. "I don't deserve to live, either. My husband may have never physically hurt Savannah, but he has molested her on numerous occasions. And I... I just stood in the kitchen and let it happen." She sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. "I always thought it was better than him beating her as he did me, but... it's not."

Now, she looked the being straight in the face, determination written on her own. She had a plan, and she could tell that the creature already knew what it was. It started to pull the little girl back, but the woman stopped it long enough to plant a kiss on her daughter's forehead.

"I love you, Savannah. Don't forget that." She leaned back against the wall, sighing in resignation.

"Mama?" Savannah said questioningly, not under standing what was going on.

The girl was ignored. Instead, Mrs. Parker addressed the entity. "Make sure she has a better life than anything I could have given her. _Please. _Don't let her become corrupted like I did."

The being seemed to ponder her request for a second, then gave a short nod. It brought Savannah back to it's chest, then turned it's back on the woman. Using one of it's hands, it buried the little girl's face in it's chest. Then, without looking, two of it's tentacles reached back towards Mrs. Parker. She let them grab her and they made her death short and virtually painless by snapping her neck. The little girl tensed at the sound, but didn't utter a word.

Instantly, the entity teleported outside. It stood at the edge of the woods, the girl still clutched against it's chest. It released it's grip, letting the girl raise her head. She looked around, recognizing her own back yard. Looking up, she regarded the creature curiously once more. She obviously wasn't afraid of it, proving so when she reached her tiny hand up to touch it's featureless face. As she stroked it's cheek, she giggled, giving it a toothy grin. Even though it didn't have eyes, it could still see, and it stared right back at her, taking in every detail of the child; her fine blonde hair, grey eyes (one of which had a wedge of brown in it), and the cut on her face. Without the wound, she looked much like someone from the entity's past. The being shook thoughts of his past out of his head and examined the cut on Savannah's face. It had stopped bleeding now, but even with a doctor's help, it would create an ugly scar that ran through the right side of her face. No matter where in the world the being placed her, she would most likely be treated poorly.

And since that would defeat the purpose of why it did what it did, it decided to do something it had never done before with the children it took.

He would keep her with him.

(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)

Slenderman teleported away, never noticing the light on in the house next door. It was an upstairs window, and framed by the light was a boy of about four. He had been the only one on the whole block to be woken by the creature's strange scream. Once awake, he had pressed his face against the window, trying to see what was going on in the other house. And when Slenderman had appeared in the back yard holding Savannah, the boy had become paralyzed by awe and fear. Once the being was gone, the trance was broken and he woke his parents, saying the something had happened next door. At first, they didn't believe him, but the boy was insistent enough for them to finally crawl out of bed and check things out.

The bodies of Alex and Jane Parker were found on April 19th, 2000, at 2:26 am.

(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)

_**A/N: Sooo... yeah. Did you like it? Was it fucked up (obviously, it was, but I thought I'd ask anyway)? Should I continue it? Leave me a message or a review to left me know! ^-^**_

_**~Rina**_


	2. Chapter 2

Deep in a dark expanse of woods there was an old Victorian-style house. No-one knew about it since it couldn't be happened upon just by walking. For, you see, the house wasn't in any forest that humans could access. It was a forest between the human world and the afterlife. When someone died, they ended up in the forest until they were ready to move onto the afterlife. Sometimes, however, they choose not to. Those spirits stayed in the forest, turning into entities (either malevolent or benevolent, depending on their human lives) gaining the ability to travel back to the human world whenever they wanted.

It was in front of the old house that Slenderman had first landed when he, himself, had passed on from the human world. As soon as he had realized he was dead, he had staked claim on the house and most of the land around it, knowing he would end up staying in the forest instead of going into the light. He still had things to do in the human world.

This was the place Slenderman took Savannah to. He teleported into the living room of the house, adjusting his height accordingly, and put Savannah down onto the floor in front of the roaring fireplace. The young girl immediately tottered off, curious about her new surroundings. The entity took the chance to go back to her old home briefly, just long enough to gather clothes, toys, and food into a duffel bag.

When he materialized back into the house, he found Savannah leaning through the banister on the second floor. She slipped on the carpet, falling through the gaps and back towards the ground floor. Right away, Slenderman's tentacles shot out, catching her before she hit the ground. He carried the giggling girl back to the living room by her ankle, dropping the bag on the ground, taking the toys out and placing her down with them. Thankfully, they kept her occupied long enough for the entity to think his current situation through.

He had never raised a child before, even when he was alive, since he had died before he could have children with someone. Of course, he knew the basics: keep her safe, keep her fed, keep her clean. But what about education? At this point in her life, Savannah could only say simple words. Slenderman couldn't teach her how to speak, so he wasn't sure how that would fare. There wasn't much else he could teach her, either. However, he knew one thing he _could _show her how to do.

Once again, he teleported away and reappeared with a stack of educational childrens' books. It was definitely too early to teach her how to read yet, but at least he'd be ready for it. After putting the books high up on a bookshelf in the empty library upstairs, Slenderman went back to the living room and knelt next to Savannah. She glanced up at him only briefly before going back to her toys.

"_Savannah._"

Hearing her name, the girl finally abandoned her toys. She turned her inquisitive gaze on him again, knowing the deep voice had come from him, but not understanding how. The idea that Slenderman could speak to people in their heads was something her underdeveloped mind couldn't quite grasp yet. But it didn't seem to bother her, so he continued.

"_This is your new home._" He said, "_And your name is Annah, now._" Changing the girl's name was just a small thing he could do to keep her safe, in case she somehow stumbled back into the world of the living.

Annah blinked a couple times, her brain slowly (but surely) processing what the entity had just said. Finally, she nodded calmly. Then, out of the blue, her stomach growled. Slenderman pulled the duffel bag over and took out a loaf of bread. He broke a piece off the loaf and offered it to her. Annah took it happily, swallowing the chunk in almost one bite. He gave her more, which she accepted with childish glee.

"Sank youu!" Annah chirped as she swallowed the last piece he had given her.

The bread hadn't been much, but it was all he could give at this second. He'd only taken non-perishable food items, or stuff that could be stored safely without a fridge, since the house had no electricity. However, Annah didn't say that she was still hungry. She only yawned and curled up on the carpet, her eyes drooping shut. Slenderman waited until her breathing was even to carefully pick her up and carry her to one of the bedrooms upstairs. Pulling the blankets on the queen-sized bed back, he lay her down and tucked the sheets back up by her neck.

She still had dried blood on her face, so Slenderman fetched some water from the old well out back, heated it up slightly with the fire in the living room, and brought it back upstairs. He dipped towel in the warm water and used it to wipe the blood from Annah's face, being gentle so as not to wake her. When he was done, he made to get up from the bed and leave the girl to sleep, but a small hand shot out from under the covers and stopped him. He looked down to find her staring back, fear showing in her bright eyes for the first time since he'd appeared before her.

"Window." Annah whispered.

Slenderman turned his head towards the window and, sure enough, there was a face just barely visible in the glass. The pale, rotting flesh identified the intruder as a newly dead teenager, most likely male. The newly dead ate human flesh, so Annah's scent had attracted the undead kid to the house. Without hesitation, Slenderman let his 'mouth' open, sending the static sound both to the kid's physical ears and into his head, as well. The kid fell from the windowsill, hitting the ground hard. Slenderman got to the window in time to see the boy sprinting away, eventually fading into the trees.

"_He is gone now,_" Slenderman told Annah, "_You may sleep._"

Annah shook her head, reaching her arms out to the entity- she wanted him to stay with her. If he could sigh in resignation, he would have. Even despite his reluctance, though, he still crawled into the bed with the young girl. She made a gleeful sound and curled up against his side, laying her head on his stomach. Slenderman couldn't understand why Annah had been scared of the kid in the window, but seemed perfectly happy to curl up with the thing that she had seen kill her father. Maybe she was smarter than her age let on and was already able to tell the difference between things that meant her harm and things that didn't.

Slenderman kept his attention on the window, making sure that the kid (or any other undead thing) wasn't going to come back. The entity realized that he would have a difficult time raising a living child in this forest, but he was determined to do it, since he knew that Annah wouldn't fit in in the living world. Not now that she had a scar, at least. He didn't want to put her back in the living world, only to have to save her from another abusive family.

No, Annah would grow up in the forest, no matter how difficult it would be.

(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)(~)

And for the first few years, difficult it was. Annah was very curious, and would constantly get herself into trouble. She would climb things she wasn't supposed to, sit too close to the fireplace or stick her fingers in the flame of any of the candles strewn around the house. Also, at her young age, Annah was very dependant on the tall man. He had to bathe and dress her in clean clothes daily and make sure she was fed properly.

But, thankfully, Annah's mind seemed to mature faster than her body. She soaked up the information that Slenderman gave her like a starving sponge. By the time she was four, she could pretty much take care of herself (as much as a four-year-old could). She insisted on getting water from the well herself (even though she needed help carrying the heavy bucket) and heating it up herself. Slenderman let her, always keeping a close watch. She also fed herself the food groups that he told her she needed. He started to read to her, thinking that if he couldn't teach her to speak, he'd at least make sure she could say the words in her head. It had started out with childrens' books, but Annah became bored with them quickly and started pushing away the childish books, taking more to books with small chapters in them.

By seven, Annah had taught herself how to speak, using the little knowledge she knew about moving her lips to form words and combining that with the words she knew in her head. It was a slow process, but encouraged by the gifts of books and toys Slenderman gave her every time she said a word or sentence correctly, she eventually got the just of speaking.

That's when the questions started.

One day, Slenderman was sitting on the couch, watching Annah closely as she boiled the last bucket of water for her bath. The girl was staring silently into the flames; she had been oddly quiet all day, and Slender was starting to wonder if she was ill.

"Papa?" She said suddenly, her voice soft, unsure.

Slenderman's jaw tensed, the equivalent to a wince if he had a face. _Papa _had been the thing she had taken to calling Slender a year or so after she had started living in the forest. He became agitated every time he heard it, but he always let it slide. It _was _the only appropriate thing she could call him.

"_Yes, Annah?_"

"Where do you leave to all the time?"

"_Try that sentence again,_" was all he said in reply.

Annah bit her lip, her mind sifting through all the information she knew about words and sentence structure. It took her a few minutes, but she finally repeated her question correctly.

"Where do you go all the time?"

He had expected the question to come eventually, but not so soon, so he didn't have an suitable answer prepared.

"_It does not matter, Annah._"

She turned towards him, a pout on her full lips. "But I want to know!"

"_No._" He said shortly, turning his head away from her and staring out the window at the setting sun.

The girl huffed; she hated when he turned away from her. She scampered towards the couch, bucket of water deserted in favor of her urge to learn something she didn't know. She climbed up onto and straddled the back of the cream-colored couch. She scooted close to Slender, craning her neck in a failed attempt to get him to look at her.

"Pleeeaassseeee?" Annah begged, her bottom lip jutting out even more. She knew that he didn't need to be facing her in order to see her.

Slenderman was becoming irritated. Her thirst for all the knowledge she could get was annoying when she started prying her nose into things she shouldn't.

"_Annah, no. It does not concern you, so there is no reason for you to know." _

"But Paapaa.." She whined.

He snapped. "_I said _NO, _Annah!" _

The raised internal voice made Annah's head feel like it was full of painful static. She clutched her skull and rolled off the back of the couch, curling up on the floor with a whimper. Instantly, Slender felt bad. He hadn't meant to hurt her- he was just trying to get her to be quiet. He twisted at the waist and stared down over the back of the couch.

"_Annah..._" He said gently.

He was ignored. Annah kept her head between her knees, keeping still as the static faded away and left a dull ache that throbbed against her skull. Needless to say, she was shocked. He had never yelled at her like that and she didn't like the feeling it gave her. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes and she sniffled, squeezing her eyes shut in an effort to keep them from leaking out.

"_Annah, look at me._"

Annah shook her head stubbornly, unsure about what to think now. She had never been scared of him before, but then again, she had never known what he could do, since he had never _wanted_ her to know.

It was obvious that the child wasn't going to face him by her own free will, so he used a tentacle to reach down and pick Annah up by the waist. She squirmed and let out a few weak protests, but it was futile. He sat her down on his lap, waiting until he knew she wouldn't try and escape to let her go.

"_Annah, look at me._" He repeated, keeping the internal voice low.

Once again, he was answered with a shake of the girl's head. Knowing how stubborn she was, he decided to force her to look at him. Even at his shortest height of six-foot-five, his long fingers still nearly engulfed Annah's face as he took her by the jaw, gently, and turned her head towards him. Annah let her head be moved, but moved her eyes downwards, to the left and right, and up; any direction to avoid looking at her Papa.

"_Annah,_" Slenderman said warningly, "_You will look at me. We can sit here all night, if need be._"

At first, she tried to call his bluff. However, she knew he was serious, so she eventually raised her eyes to his 'face.'

"_I _am _sorry, Annah. I did not mean to hurt you, but if I say no, then you must cease asking questions. Do you understand?_"

The girl nodded, but that wasn't enough for the entity.

"_Speak, Annah, and do it clearly._"

"Yes, Papa." Annah said in a loud, clear voice.

Slenderman nodded in satisfaction and put Annah down on the floor. "_The water in the bath is probably getting cold,_" He said, standing up, "_so let us hope that last bucket will warm it up._"

Annah nodded and carefully took the bucket from where it was hanging over the fireplace. She trudged upstairs with it and poured it into the claw-foot tub in the bathroom. Her papa had been right, the water had been getting cold, but the bucket of hot water brought it back up to a reasonable bath temperature. The girl bathed quickly, then slid into a pair of fuzzy yellow pajama pants and a matching shirt with a monkey on it. Annah liked monkeys; they were her favorite animal.

The girl bounded out of the bathroom and across the hall into her bedroom. Slender was already in there, standing at the window. He did this every night to make sure that nothing would come for Annah, like the zombie boy from the very first night had. Quietly, Annah climbed into bed. Slender left the window and glided up to the bed. He bent over, tucking the blankets tightly around the young girl and giving her cheek a gentle pat.

"Papa?" Annah asked from under the blanket.

"_Yes?_"

"Can you tell me a story?"

Slender stood up from the bed. This was a request he could fulfill, since Annah asked it of him on nights she didn't want to go to sleep right away. But when the entity made to go over to the bookshelf, Annah stopped him.

"No, I am bored of those books. I want a different story."

"_I do not know any stories, Annah._"

"None at all?" Annah asked. Scepticism was one of the young girl's favorite tones to use against the entity. It amused Slender greatly.

Her papa tilted his head slightly, thinking. For some reason, his mind went back to Annah's earlier question. He doubted he would ever have an appropriate answer for her, even when she was older. So, then and there, he decided to answer her question. Though, in a very indirect way.

"_I know one story._" Slender said as he perched in the edge of the bed. Annah settled back down in her pillows and watched him, eyes wide with eagerness. "_It starts off with a young lady who wanted to do the things she had been told only a man could do._"

"Like what?" Annah interrupted.

_"She wanted to be a knight. All her life, all this lady wanted to do was fight for her country, but when she left to join the war, the men refused her entry. _'You cannot fight in the war;' _they would say_ 'that is the job of the men. The job of a woman is to take care of the children and the house.' _Saddened, the woman returned home. But instead of going back to her parents house, where she lived, she went to the home of one of her oldest friends. He, like herself, had always been told there were things he could not do, so she knew he would understand._"

"Did he?" Annah asked.

"_Hush, Annah._" Slender scolded softly. The girl nodded. "_Yes, her friend understood her sadness and he became angry at the men who had refused the lady. So, he devised a plan for his friend to realize her dream. They would disguise her. The young man offered the woman his name- a man's name would get her into the war. Then, he offered to cut her hair for her. However, the woman did not want to cut her beautiful hair._"

Annah opened her mouth, then shut it again, not wanting to interrupt the story again. Slender gestured for her to speak.

"What was her hair like?"

Holding a lock of Annah's own hair up, Slender answered, "_It was very much like yours, Annah; very soft and very light._"

"I would not want to cut my hair, either!" Annah said with a giggle. "What did they do?"

"_The man was very good with his hands, so he made the woman a wig with very short hair. Once she had put it on and donned the heavy layers of the knight's suit of armor, she was unrecognizable as a woman. Using her friend's name, she went back to the army and they accepted her..._"

_ "_But it did not last long, did it?"Annah said slowly.

Slender shook his head. "_No, it did not. Only a month after she joined the war, the woman was discovered. Her teammates had started to become suspicious with the way the woman would not bathe or sleep when they were within sight. So one night, they followed her to her tent and when she went to sleep, they peeked inside and saw her true self. They were very angry at being deceived, and sent the woman home to be executed for treason._"

Annah gasped, but Slender knew she wasn't too shocked about the death in the story. One of her favorite books _was _a book on medieval fairytales.

"_Not to worry; she was not killed. Instead, the young man spoke up and said that he had forced the woman to join the war in his place._"

"So they killed him instead?" Annah asked in awe.

"_Yes, but it was alright. Would you like to know why?_"

Annah nodded impatiently.

"_Because the young man now spends his time saving little princes and princesses around the world from the clutches of evil kings and queens._"

"Why?"

"_Because,_" Slenderman said as he stood up from the bed, _"He had been a prince under an evil king's rule himself._"


End file.
